Page 44 of Like First Love, Again

Didn’t Tori notice? Did she like it? Why were they so comfortable touching so damn much? Had they touched before?

Flipping burgers, Mia wondered if Ashley Mora would taste the jealous rage she was infusing into the meat. She hoped so.She hoped it tasted just a little sour. Maybe she would choke on it. Not enough to drop dead, but just enough to scare her into backing off.

Mia had downed three boozy seltzers and was helping set the food on the picnic tables under the pavilion when Tori came jogging up to her. Covered in sweat and skin flushed, Tori used the bottom of her shirt to wipe her face, giving Mia the briefest glimpse of her flat belly and sports bra. Watching her, Mia tried to remember why she was angry.

“I’m starving,” Tori said, opening a cooler and reaching for a bottle of water.

Mia tried not to wonder what it would feel like to run a dripping ice cube over Tori’s hot skin. Tried not to hear the sizzle or taste the salt on her skin. She was annoyed and wanted to stay annoyed and Tori looking mouth-watering while covered in sweat was really ruining her vibe.

“What’s wrong?” Tori cracked open the bottle and gulped.

The way her throat bobbed was bad enough, but the exertion had also brought out the veins in Tori’s hands. It was unfair. Mia didn’t have the defenses for this kind of assault.

“Nothing,” Mia lied and pretended to care about how paper plates were arranged while their friends helped themselves to enough food to feed a small nation.

Tori tipped her head to the side, some hair sliding out of her ponytail. Just the right amount of hair to be devastating. Hair that begged Mia to stop and tuck it behind her ear. Mia opened an unnecessary box of biodegradable cutlery instead.

“Not nothing,” Tori replied with a confused smile, like she couldn’t quite decide if Mia was playing. Not that Mia knew either.

Mia busied herself with turning up one of the massive box fans someone brought to its highest setting. It didn’t exactlycool anything down, but it kept everyone a few degrees below sweltering.

“Mia.” Tori’s fingers loosely grasping her wrist made her stop. “Hey.” Her eyes were so big, so dripping in earnest concern, they made Mia stand still like she’d been caught in a trap. “What’s wrong?”

The question was so pathetic, but it leapt out of Mia’s mouth anyway. “Have you hooked up with her?”

Tori’s perfect eyebrows drew together. “Who?”

Mia narrowed her gaze. “Who else?” She lowered her voice. “Ashley.”

Ashley who didn’t spring into your life with her mess. Who’d known she was gay. Who already knew how to do this.

Chewing on the inside of her lip, Tori’s attempt to stop her laugh was pitiful. “What? Do you really believe the stereotype that all lesbians sleep together?” She put her hand to her chest, but her feigned offense was too obvious. “How could you?”

Mia crossed her arms over her chest and waited for a real answer.

Tori laughed and then offered a shrug that burned in Mia’s gut. “Once,” she admitted. “A very long time ago. We were super drunk and made out in the bathroom of a shitty bar.”

A war cry, high-pitched and deafening, rang in Mia’s ears. Her gaze darted to where Ashley was sitting at a table, laughing while she shoved a hot dog down her gullet.

“Mia, I never?—”

“Well, why the hell haven’t you made out with me in a gross bathroom?” Mia shot back, even though she wasn’t exactly sure what she meant.

“What?” Tori’s surprised laugh illuminated her perfect face.

Acting on instinct while the tendrils of jealousy spurred her to stop overthinking it, Mia grabbed Tori by the shirt and pulled her in. Tori’s arms wrapped around her waist because it waswhere they belonged. Because they belonged together and if anyone was getting mauled by Tori in a filthy bathroom, it was going to be Mia.

Not unlike an animal marking territory, Mia pulled Tori down and kissed her. Kissed her for every time she should have held her close. Every time she should have stayed with her on the roof. Every time she should have slipped her hand higher up her shirt while they slept. She kissed her because she was proud and wanted everyone to know that she’d managed to capture a tiny flicker of light in the dark.

The firstoh shitgasped in delighted surprise was followed by a riot of clapping and cheering. As if their friends had been waiting for this declaration for years. Mia grinned into their kiss before she flung her arms around Tori and kissed her harder.

“What was that for?” Tori breathed against her mouth like they were still alone in her living room.

Instead of responding with the truth, Mia kissed her again. Growlingmineseemed like a bit much for a Saturday afternoon in public.

Twenty-Three

Tori never imagined she’d be sitting in the back of Mia’s old station wagon, hatch open, watching the sun set behind the park’s enormous banyan trees. They’d planned to go get ice cream, but after loading the coolers and other stuff in the back, they’d ended up sitting down and delighting in the breeze and talking.

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